It is known to form micromelt structures by melting material in an electric field, applying that material to a tip and allowing the material to solidify thereon.
Probe tips with homogeneous characteristics at the tip ends are essential for use of probe tips in scanning power or scanning tunnel microscopy in which the probe tips serve as scanning needles in Van der Waal's alternating fields or in magnetic fields or as tunnel tips for the measurement of tunnel currents. The characteristics of such probe tips must be well defined and reproducible for such uses if the measured values at the scanning points, in scanning microscopy, are to be qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated with the desired precision.
It has been found to be important, therefore, to make such probe tips so that they not only have the desired characteristics but also can be fabricated reproducibly, i.e. so that a succession of tips can be made with identical properties. The formation of micromelt structures, if effected reproducibly on such probe tips, has been found to provide the necessary signal reproducibility and contact homogeneity.